December 19, 2023 | Local, Aerospace
Liberals told Boeing aircraft deal would mean few economic benefits for Canadian firms
Liberal government told selecting Boeing P-8 would be the least riskiest option but provide few economic benefits to Canada
November 15, 2017 | Local, Aerospace
PAL soon hiring for SAR main operating bases
Posted on November 15, 2017 by Chris Thatcher
The in-service support and training systems team behind Canada's new fixed-wing search and rescue (FWSAR) aircraft expects to begin construction on a training centre at 19 Wing Comox, B.C., before the end of the year.
Eva Martinez, PAL Aerospace vice president of in-service support, said the first shovel should break ground in December. “We're working on finalizing that date,” she told the Best Defence Conference in London, Ont., on Nov. 1.
Canada's 16 C295W aircraft will likely be distributed three per base, with two marked for training and two to be rotated amongst the SAR squadrons to cover for aircraft undergoing maintenance. Airbus Photo
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) will take delivery of the first of 16 Airbus C295W search and rescue aircraft in April 2020 at a renewed main operating base at 19 Wing, scheduled to be stood up in December 2019.
Airbus was awarded a $2.4 billion contract in December 2016 to replace the RCAF's fleet of six CC-115 Buffalos and several CC-130H Hercules assigned to search and rescue duty. The contract includes delivery of the aircraft, construction of a state-of-the-art training centre, and the first five years of maintenance and support. Options for an additional 15 years of maintenance and support services could extend the agreement to 2042 and the total value to $4.7 billion.
As part of the Airbus team, PAL Aerospace will provide program management services, in-service support (ISS), maintenance and logistics support, heavy maintenance, a mobile repair team, and manage a centralized supply chain.
The two companies have created a Canadian joint venture called AirPro to serve as the ISS integrator. And as a Tier 1 supplier to Airbus, PAL will provide direct maintenance, repair and overall (MRO) services as well as logistics and engineering augmentation.
While CAE Canada has responsibility for the training program, infrastructure and support, PAL has the task of creating a contractor field office and tool and parts warehouse and staffing an integrated team of aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) at the four main operating bases in Comox, Winnipeg, Trenton, Ont., and Greenwood, N.S.
It will also set up a central warehouse in Winnipeg to supply all four bases, alongside an MRO facility for heavy inspections and the mobile repair party. An interim warehouse will be created in St. John's, N.L., until the Winnipeg facility is ready in December 2022.
“Next year, we begin the wave of hiring,” said Martinez, noting that AMEs, a senior maintenance manager and other personnel will all need to be in place as the facilities and services at each main operating base come online, starting with Comox and then likely Winnipeg, Trenton and Greenwood, “though that may change.”
This rendering shows the new fixed-wing search and rescue training centre to be built at 19 Wing Comox, B.C. CAE Image
The 16 C295W aircraft will likely be distributed three per base, with two marked for training and two to be rotated amongst the SAR squadrons to cover for aircraft undergoing maintenance, she said.
Although St. John's-based PAL has been providing airline, aviation and manufacturing services since 1972, establishing a global reputation in the process, the FWSAR contract has helped put the company “on the map” in Canada, Martinez acknowledged.
As part of its central role in the program, PAL will be leaning on a wider supply chain of small and medium Canadian companies to achieve its industrial and technological benefits (ITB) obligations. “[We] will be expecting [our] suppliers to provide the support that we need so we too can meet our ITB and value proposition contractual commitments,” she said.
As one of the first large projects to move through the procurement process since the government in 2014 introduced a defence procurement strategy emphasizing value propositions (VP) to enhance economic returns, the “FWSAR contract is actually the first in Canada to fall under a measured VP,” Martinez noted. “In other words, [the VP] wasn't just used for bid evaluation. A variety of tasks have already been pre-determined against which every Tier 1 will have to identify their labour hours specific to each of those tasks.”
While Airbus will have an obligation to invest at least 15 per cent of its ITB commitments in small and medium enterprises, PAL's requirement is just 1.4 per cent. Martinez stressed, however, that the company would be looking well beyond that for additional Canadian content.
“That does not mean we are going to cap ourselves at 1.4 per cent. We have just as much interest [as Airbus] in working with small and medium enterprises where it makes sense in terms of performance,” she said.
https://www.skiesmag.com/news/pal-soon-hiring-sar-main-operating-bases/
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May 7, 2020 | Local, Land
General Dynamics saw $1 billion bump after Canada-Saudi accord
By: Joe Gould   1 day ago WASHINGTON ― General Dynamics has received $1 billion since the renegotiation of a $10 billion contract for Canada to sell light armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia, company officials said on its first quarter earnings call. In a deal last month, Canada lifted its ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which in turn agreed to a speedier payment schedule for the LAVs. Canada had the vehicles on hold since 2018, following the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; and by October, Saudi Arabia had racked up $1.5 billion in back payments to General Dynamics. Amid news on the April 29 call that the company's revenue fell $512 million in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, General Dynamics Chief Financial Officer Jason Aiken highlighted “the formal signing of the restructured contract on the Canadian international program, which settled all issues to the satisfaction of the parties.” “With respect to our standing receivable you may recall that we received $500 million early in the first quarter and we received another $500 million this month. This will be very helpful to free cash flow in the second quarter,” Aiken said. “We will begin a regular cadence of scheduled payments in 2021 consistent with deliveries and making further progress in the scheduled amortization of the arrearage.” The company's Combat Systems division had revenue of $1.7 billion, up 4.4 percent over the same quarter last year, and sales to the U.S. government were up 12 percent. The firm's aerospace business segment also had revenue of $1.7 billion, but that represented a 23 percent fall from the same quarter last year. On April 9, Canada's foreign affairs minister, François-Philippe Champagne, announced Ottawa was “able to secure significant improvements” to the LAV contract, including more latitude for the Canadian government to speak about it. Under the new terms, Canada could also delay or deny export permits without penalty if it learned Saudi Arabia was not using the vehicles for their stated purpose. Ottawa would also be reviewing permit applications on a case-by-case basis to ensure they meet Canadian law and the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty. Though the Trudeau government has been under political pressure to scrap the LAV deal over human rights concerns, Champagne said its cancellation would have “resulted in billions of dollars in damages” and risked thousands of Canadian jobs across the defense supply chain. The vehicles are made by the General Dynamics Land Systems subsidiary in London, Ontario. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/05/07/general-dynamics-saw-1-billion-bump-after-canada-saudi-accord
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December 21, 2020 | Local, Naval
Editorial: Choppy waters for Canada's warship program
The Canadian Surface Combatant project is moored in layers of unnecessary secrecy. Information that has trickled out has been fragmented and contradictory. This suggests anything but smooth sailing. Author of the article: Editorial Board Perhaps, one day, Canada will have 15 splendid new warships, outfitted with cutting-edge technology, that boost our naval security, create thousands of high-quality jobs and offer myriad industrial benefits. But meanwhile, the project to build the Canadian Surface Combatant vessels remains moored in layers of unnecessary secrecy. The information journalists and the Parliamentary Budget Officer have gleaned to-date has been fragmented and contradictory. This suggests anything but smooth sailing. For one thing, there is the issue of cost. The plan to construct the warships has navigated its way through federal governments since the 1990s, but won't start until 2023. It has been delayed time and again; project requirements have changed; and most significantly, the price estimate has soared. Let's start there. The original $14-billion estimate for these ships is now around $70 billion, according to experts. And, as explained by the Citizen's David Pugliese, officials have done everything possible to keep these swelling costs under wraps. While MPs focus on scandals such as the WE Charity debacle (which involved just under $1 billion in grants), there's been little serious parliamentary scrutiny of the spiralling costs of our new-age warships. Next came allegations of bid-rigging (strenuously denied by the government) from some potential contractors, after the procurement rules were changed. In one legal filing, a company noted the parameters of the CSC project has been altered 88 times during the process. Third, while politicians and bureaucrats have argued there will be thousands of high-paying jobs and other industrial benefits, insiders are more dubious. There are no consequences to contractors who don't meet job targets. What is truly scandalous about the shipbuilding affair, however, is the blind insistence on secrecy from all levels of government. Canadian taxpayers will be on the hook for $70 billion (and perhaps more, by the time the first ship sails). Yet journalists from this news organization and others have seen straightforward questions go unanswered; have been threatened with lawsuits; or have had access-to-information queries (that's the law designed to get answers out of government) stalled for years. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has been refused information that was nonetheless shared by government with lobbyists and potential contractors. Project defenders may deride those who raise problems. Yet with so much secrecy, it is impossible for a thinking voter to feel full confidence that the government is competently steering one of its most important files: the nation's defence. Such stonewalling reeks of confusion or incompetence. It's unacceptable in a liberal democracy, and must change. https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/editorial-choppy-waters-for-canadas-warship-program